Publishing Hardcover Books on Amazon & Beyond: Full Comparison

I worked with indie author and YouTuber S.D. Huston to order a proof copies of her book, Blood of the Lilly, through five different self publishing companies that handle printing for hardcover books. In this deep comparison, I pitted Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) vs IngramSpark vs Barnes and Noble Press vs Lulu vs Blurb. Find out what platform has the best quality for selling your self published print book on.

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0:00
0:50 KDP
3:58 IngramSpark
7:01 Lulu
9:55 Barnes & Noble Press
12:09 Blurb Books
15:36 The author's thoughts
18:45 Book montage

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- Dale L. Roberts

[MrMarshEnglishClass]

Thank you, Dale. I have written a textbook for a course I teach and have been looking into publishing it through Lulu. It is 550-ish pages long. I appreciate your candor and advise on these publishers. Do you have any advice on hiring a cover designer?

[DrLindaFWilliams]

You are the Independent Publishing Sensei, Dale. I've been watching your channel for 3-years now. Unbiased. Knowledgeable. Straightforward and you get straight to the point! Thank you!

[SDHuston]

Awesome! I didn't realize how much KDP's quality would be off. I didn't like how the book looked warped! Thank you so much for including me as a part of this series. All the episodes have been right on time for me as I prepare to go wide!

[Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

My KDP hardcover book (BASIL AND THE WALTZ OF COLORS) lays flat, all the copies I ordered do. The book I printed with IngramSpark in 2020 had much more muted colors and was so expensive and took a long time to arrive. One of the issues I have with KDP is that sometimes the text on the spine doesn't come in the middle, but in general I am pleased with the quality. The bigger issue I have with KDP is that it appears we can't quite have books with a colour image that continues on both pages, it somehow gets cuts in the middle by a white line. That is a massive issue for picture books. F ex, I had one book and the characters' heads were being chopped and that looked awful, so I had to redesign the book. Now that I know this, I am adjusting my design so in the next book I don't have this issue, but that means I can't have landscape images that will completely show, so my choice is to have the illustrations designed vertically to fit just on one page.

Ps: My book is 8.25 x 11 inches. Here's a short clip with it.

[SelfPubWithAndy]

Great comparison video for hardcover books, love it! Big fan of both you and S.D Huston (1N) 🥳

[easylearningweb]

What an INCREDIBLE comparison of hardcover options! Very helpful information! 👏

[l.r]

Absolutely excellent comparison Dale! Your videos are always worth the time!

[DaleLRoberts]

Wanna see some more print-on-demand book comparisons?
Check out these:

[InvisionHopeHealthyLiving]

Thanks for the video with a comprehensive overview of various print types.

[alisonforsythe]

Thanks for this series Dale, great work! I'm surprised about the quality issue with KDP with cream paper as the low content books I published on white paper are great quality. I've done both gloss and matt finishes depending on the book and they are really lovely. Just embarking on a full colour project and I'll definitely be doing proofs with different platforms to see which measure up.

[LeeAnnRubsam]

I did my first hard cover books at KDP a few months ago. I was happy with everything except the shipping. Somewhere between 25% and 35% of the books were damaged upon arrival -- all because of poor shipping. They were packed in boxes too big for them with NO additional packing material inside -- no bubble wrap, wadded up paper, nothing. That was all it would have taken to get the books here in perfect shape -- a little padding inside so they couldn't slop around. :-(

[AuthorDLTillery]

Thanks for the information, Dale and S.D.! With my upcoming release plans, I'm really trying to get all the info I can correct.🎉

[cleoborac]

Dale, can you say something about the pricing of the hardcover books? The royalties are calculated based on selling price minus cost of printing, etc. If the cost of printing is very high, then an author must also charge a lot for a copy. This may lead to fewer sales. For instance, a hardcover of 80 pages in a 7x10 format on KDP, full color, has a minimum of 20.89 at which royalties are zero. Royalties only happen above this price and, if one looks for affordability, this price compares negatively to existing hardcover books. A video on specifically this aspect would be very illuminating. Thank you!

[JamesSedgwick-jphh]

I've bought four hardbacks from KDP. The first was with a glossy cover. The other three was a trilogy with matt covers. I have to say that I like both forms. Whenever I get ready for publication I'll have to toss a coin to decide which one I'll choose. LOL

[t.butcher]

I did the Le creme option on my hardcovers. Nice looking.

[LostinMemory]

Idk unlike ebooks the paperback and hard book there seems to be so much hassle with the dimensions. Probably Ingram is the way to go since its reach is better than all but also have the least problems with the product. I think lulu could be used as a secondary for just it's quality but also to promote on your website with a different cover art specifically for your website.

[adventureswithtime]

I'm looking to publish a numismatic catalogue with many color pictures and about 300 pages. I'm planning to fulfill myself, not through Amazon or any other marketplace. Probably will make about 200 copies but that will depend upon pre-orders. I was thinking of publishing through Amazon; but I believe that is only soft-covers and I may want to go hardcover. What options and suggestions do you have? Do you have any videos on scenarios like mine?

[idhvolt]

Have you had any issues with the cover quality of the KDP hardcovers? I recently ordered about 18 author copies and about half of them had a very "bumpy" texture, like the glue started to bubble when they applied the cover art. I notified them about the problem and they said they would replace the damaged copies, but I was curious if you had this problem or would know of a way to fix them (eg. using an iron, etc.).

[andrewcarson]

Dear Dale, again excellent info and presentation. Enjoyed it. Question: it sounded like about the American market. Written four books in 2 years, and as a newbie, used KDP. Checked our options in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, where we sold.
Is there any major difference of these five companies going through the process in Europe (they printed them in Poland, costs of printing)?
As always, bless you for your services!!! Highly appreciated ❤You do talk fast 😂😂😂

[blackdove]

Hello
Pardon me if I missed something. But does Draft2Digital no longer offer hardbacks? I thought theirs came with a jacket. I'm trying to make a choice for my next 2 books.